a failed capture
by auroracode
Summary: In which Chuuya realizes something's fishy and doesn't get stuck in Poe's Book


If anyone had asked him, Chuuya Nakahara would have readily admitted to a good amount of confusion when the Armed Detective Agency's Ranpo Edogawa had stepped out of the Alleyway and declared that it was his role to stop him.

Chuuya was well aware that Ranpo was the ADA's lynchpin, but that was for his intelligence, it was well known that he had no combat abilities. And so it was with a mix of confidence and confusion that he stated as much to the other man, only for him to respond with an annoying smile and seven words that made Chuuya's blood boil.

"But haven't you lost to Dazai before?" It wasn't the reminder of having been defeated by Dazai that made him mad, while he certainly didn't like being beaten by him if he had to be defeated by anyone Dazai was his preferable choice. No, what made him mad was that Ranpo knew nothing about the specifics of Chuuya and Dazai's relationship and yet had the nerve to taunt him about it.

He didn't know about their turbulent start, how Dazai had manipulated things so that Chuuya would join the Mafia, he didn't know how they'd hated each other when they were first partnered but had ended up coming to care about each other, he didn't know about all the times Chuuya had patched Dazai up after his suicide attempts, or the times Dazai had carried Chuuya's broken body back to base after the use of Corruption, he didn't know how they were both willing to die and kill for each other, he didn't know how much it had hurt Chuuya to have Dazai leave and abandon him. He knew nothing.

For all the detective's intelligence, Chuuya was sure that Ranpo had no idea about how deep and turbulent a bond ran between him and Dazai, and so he had no right to try and use it against him.

Chuuya's lip started to curl up into a snarl, a threat forming on the tip of his tongue, fully intent on beating Ranpo into the ground for his nerve. But then he paused.

Now Chuuya wasn't stupid, he was aware of course that there were many people who thought he was, who saw him as little more than an angry attack dog, and honestly he'd never really done anything to try and change their opinion; it was to his benefit, after all, to have people underestimate him. The fact was though, that Chuuya was fully capable of thinking for himself; he could figure things out and make plans on his own, he just preferred to usually leave that to other people and focus his attention on jumping into the fray.

It was because he wasn't stupid, that Chuuya couldn't help but feel there was something wrong about this situation. The Agency knew Chuuya was the Mafia's strongest fighter, they knew he was the one in charge while Mori was out of commission, and yet to deal with him they had sent someone who not only wasn't a fighter but had a tendency to make people want to punch him in the face. All of it screamed that it was a trap, that they were trying to get him out of the way. He didn't know exactly what would happen if he did, but he knew that for some reason they wanted him to attack Ranpo.

So obviously he wouldn't.

Forcing himself to calm down, he relaxed his posture and fixed Ranpo with a mocking stare.

"You think you're comparable to Dazai?" He questioned, not having to put too much effort into making a sneer appear on his face, the very idea was laughable after all. "I wasn't aware you'd been my partner for three years and knew my fighting style by heart, or that you'd been a mafia executive since you were fifteen and had plenty of experience fighting." He could see Ranpo's eyes widening in surprise as he spoke and he mentally congratulated himself, it looked like things were not going according to the detective's plan. "Dazai may be a stupid and annoying waste of bandages, but at least he's competent, which is more than can be said for you."

Turning on his heel, Chuuya activated For The Tainted Sorrow and used it to walk up the side of a building, he'd get to his destination via the rooftops. As he took off he found himself silently wishing he could see the face of the rest of the Agency when they found out whatever plan they had, had failed.

**Author Note:**

I hate the whole 'Chuuya gets stuck in Poe's book' thing so much, I always found it very OOC that Ranpo would show up, taunt Chuuya about Dazai and then Chuuya would immediately attack him and not stop and go 'huh this seems like a trap'. I mean Chuuya's not stupid, I know a lot of people tend to act like he's just some angry attack dog, but he's an Executive and Mori's right hand, he wouldn't be those if he was dumb. I firmly believe that Chuuya's actually very smart, it's just his personality is more action-oriented, plus he usually has someone like Dazai or Mori to do the thinking and so he prefers to leave the thinking to other people and act just on instinct. (Also I really don't want to write it but man I want a fic where Chuuya still ends up in the book but gets out really quickly and everyone is like "wait, what just happened) (Also Ranpo probably got back to the rest of the agency and was like "well that didn't work, also I think he kind of complimented dazai" and everyone is super confused)


End file.
